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The Card Conditioning Guide helps new sellers choose a TCGplayer condition one question at a time. It is a seller aid, not an official grading tool. Open it from Quick Add, the Add page, the footer, or go directly to tryhoard.com/card-conditioning.

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When to use it

Use the guide when you are not sure whether a card should be Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, Heavily Played, or Damaged. The guide is intentionally cautious. If a flaw feels close between two conditions, choose the lower condition or add photos to the listing.

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What it checks

The flow asks one yes-or-no question at a time. It starts with issues that make a card unsafe to list normally, then works down toward smaller condition details. It reminds you to check both the front and the back of the card. Back-side whitening, dents, creases, dirt, and clouding count too.

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Damaged and do-not-list checks

Some answers end the flow before normal wear questions: For signed, painted, or otherwise marked cards, use a custom listing with clear photos instead of treating the mark as normal wear.

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Near Mint, Lightly Played, and Moderately Played

The hardest calls are usually between Near Mint, Lightly Played, and Moderately Played. Near Mint does not have to mean perfect. A card can still be Near Mint with up to a few tiny issues if they are hard to notice and do not include stronger flaws like creases, dents, bends, dirt, clouding, or obvious whitening. Use Lightly Played when the card has small wear that is easy to see but still limited. Use Moderately Played when flaws are spread out, obvious at arm’s length, or there are more than a few small issues.

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Common disqualifiers

If you want a visual walk down the grade ladder before you start, open tryhoard.com/card-conditioning/disqualifiers. It shows what edgewear, corner nicks, scuffing, indentations, bends, signatures, stamps, and water stains look like on a real card, and which conditions each one disqualifies. Click any photo to zoom; hover to pan with a magnifier.

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Official reference

Hoard’s guide is based on TCGplayer’s public Card Conditioning Overview. When there is doubt, follow TCGplayer’s policy and choose the lower condition.